Robert Thompsons mother and father were patently not good parents. v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte V. and Reg. [71] Ralph also remarried, and has three daughters by his second wife. [9] In March 2010, a call was made by England's Children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson to raise the age of criminal responsibility from ten to twelve. [52] During the police investigation, it emerged that Child's Play 3 was one of the films that Venables' father had rented in the months prior to the killing, but it was not established that Venables had ever watched it. Pathologist Alan Williams stated that Bulger suffered so many injuries42 in totalthat none could be identified as the fatal blow. Video, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, HSBC says 1 bank buyout boosted profit by $1.5bn, Yellen warns US could run out of cash in a month, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israel prison. The storyline was to feature Loretta Jones and her friend Chrissy, who had been given new identities before arriving in the village, after being convicted of murdering a child at the age of 12. Jon did take the separation poorly, though. Before their trial in November 1993, the press ferreted around the doorways and back alleys of Walton village, Liverpool, looking for any thing that might determine that these two 10-year-olds were indeed evil or the product of evil. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. A mental disorder where a person manifests completely amoral behaviour and a lack of ability to love or empathise, psychopathy is the root of many of historys most infamous crimes. Venables and Thompson were released from prison many years later and given new identities. The judge revealed that Venables had been living in Cheshire at the time of the offences, and that the case was dealt with by Cheshire police and Cheshire probation service. During the trial, the full horror of James' death emerged. He did like to be liked, and loved to have friends, and he has got involved with the wrong person.". Weeping, she said: 'I wasn't actually on the railway track because there is a fence, but I went up the side. Jonathan Foster reports", "Drug dealer who found James Bulger's body jailed after crashing into family's car", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 4, Ten-Year-Old Suspects", "Death of James Bulger: Pt 5, Robert Denies, Jon Cries", "Liverpool Tries to Reconcile Murder and a Boy Next Door", "James Bulger documentary: Jon Venables so haunted by toddler victim he detected 'baby smell' on everything he wore, C5 show claims", "The secret meetings that set James's killers free", "Bulger ruling: If the defendants could not talk about their crime, how could they conduct a defence? v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex parte T", "Bulger killers: identifying them was a mistake", "Omand Review The Case of Jon Venables", "James Bulger killing: the case history of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson", "Outrage at call for Bulger killers' release", "Two youngsters who found a new rule to break", "Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. What crime did they commit? During the trial, the full horror of James' death emerged. [28] Bulger's severed body was discovered by a group of children two days later. [48] This campaign was successful, and Howard announced in July 1994 that the boys would be kept in custody for a minimum of fifteen years,[48][49] meaning that they would not be considered for release until February 2008, by which time they would be 25 years old. But things were difficult. In an exclusive interview with Metro.co.uk, the woman, who must remain anonymous to protect Venables' anonymity, revealed she was "seduced by the devil," and only recently found out that she'd actually dated him. Venables worked full-time in a job with anti-social hours, earning close to the minimum wage, the court heard. Jons parents were estranged, but there was never a hint of abuse within the family. He is broken- hearted over it. [21], Eventually, the boys arrived in Walton. A woman has revealed that she discovered that a man she once dated was in fact Jon Venables. Mr Venables said: "He wouldn't watch horror. ", James Bulger's killers are once again being branded monsters. [4][95] A spokesman for St Helens Borough Council denied that the incident had been covered up, saying: "All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governor. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance when their families attended the trial. Two days later, after a huge police search, James's battered body was found on a railway line more than two miles away. [4] The officer's suspicions were aroused, and the computer was taken away for examination leading to the discovery of the child sexual abuse material, which included children as young as two being raped by adults,[113][114] and penetrative rape of seven- or eight-year-olds. The moment was caught on CCTV and became the defining image of a horrific case. [9], Lord Donaldson criticised Howard's intervention, describing the increased tariff as "institutionalised vengeance [by] a politician playing to the gallery". Despite the passage of nearly three decades, the story of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables continues to stun. In November 2017, she had published an alleged photograph of Venables on Facebook, with the advice "share this as much as possible". "All he said when we've said 'Why didn't you run away?' WebJames Patrick Bulger Net Worth. [7] Venables was detained in Vardy House, a small eight-bedded unit at Red Bank secure unit in St. Helens on Merseyside. [126], On 23 November 2017, it was reported that Venables had again been recalled to prison for possession of child sexual abuse imagery. I came back and then (Mrs Venables) went out. Justice Secretary Jack Straw stated that Venables had been returned to prison because of "extremely serious allegations", and stated that he was "unable to give further details of the reasons for Jon Venables's return to custody, because it was not in the public interest to do so". so they were put in a lower year. [9][56], After the trial, Thompson was held at the Barton Moss Secure Care Centre in Manchester. [30] Forensic tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. He has had Christmas presents. [127] On 5 January 2018, Venables was charged with unspecified offences relating to indecent images of children. "[85][86] On 26 April, two men received suspended jail sentences of nine months after admitting to contempt of court, by publishing photographs that they claimed to be of Venables and Thompson on Facebook and Twitter. 2023 BBC. On 20 September 2008, he was held on suspicion of affray over a street fight with a man who claimed Venables had attacked his girlfriend. He was fearful, he was weak and he was provoked. Venables served seven years of a life sentence for the 1993 murder before he was freed in June 2001, aged 18. What upsets me is I've no way of bringing him up for the rest of his young years so he's going to lose all his childhood. They answered the question the next day, relaying the Australian government's denial that the killers had been settled in the country. [90] On 25 October, a man was jailed for 26 weeks for stalking Denise Fergus; he had previously received a police warning for stalking her in 2008. Venables was formally warned by the Probation Service for breaking a "good behaviour" clause in his licence. [4] Details of the boys' lives were recorded twice daily on running sheets and signed by the member of staff who had written them; the records were stored at the units and copied to officials in Whitehall. He is far from it. 'James would be 18 now the pain of losing him will never go away', Michael Jackson's Heal The World released to support new Liverpool James Bulger centre for bullied children, James Bulger's father on surviving 20 years of grief, Jon Venables: how attitudes towards criminality have changed and hardened, Legal dilemma of granting child killers anonymity, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_James_Bulger&oldid=1151980385, February 1993 events in the United Kingdom, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 April 2023, at 12:23. [94], Shortly before his 2001 release, when aged 17, Venables was alleged to have had sex with a woman who worked at the Red Bank secure unit where he was held. To the majority of the press, Robert Thompson's mother was not there for him; on the rare occasions that she was, she was a "mess". He would go to bed. Venables was She contacted the police, and the boys were arrested. Some time thereafter, he began a relationship with a woman who had a five-year-old child; it is not known whether Venables had already begun downloading child abuse images at the time of dating the woman, although he denies having ever met the child. [4][12] Thompson and Venables had approached James Bulger, took him by the hand, and led him out of the shopping centre. The notes record that Ann and Philip had also previously taken overdoses. Vicious murders can often be motivated by a sexual element. He gets upset. [18][19] Two people challenged Thompson and Venables, but they either claimed that Bulger was their brother, or that he was lost, and that they were taking him to a police station. Quite obviously, overseeing a home environment in which physical, emotional, verbal and sexual violence is rife is bad parenting. [93] In January 2020, a 53-year-old woman from Ammanford in South Wales received a prison sentence of eight months, suspended for 15 months. But Jon Venables background was seemingly free from the shocking and traumatic events that his friend Robert endured. "I don't think we went wrong at all," Venables maintained rather desperately in a newspaper interview she later gave. Susan Venables, mother of Jon - referred to throughout the trial as Boy B - blamed her son's 'weakness' for the murder of James Bulger, and said he was going through torment. He and Robert Thompson were convicted of abducting and killing James Bulger in 1993. Or even tough answers, come to that. He had so many injuries it was hard to determine which had been fatal. Venables was held at the Red Bank secure unit in St. Helens, Merseyside, which was not revealed until after he had been released. The game's developer, Legacy Interactive, released a statement in which it apologised for the image's inclusion in the game; according to the statement, the image's use was "inadvertent", and took place "without any knowledge of the crime, which occurred in the UK, and was minimally publicised in the United States". [38] Thompson was considered to have taken the leading role in the abduction process, though it was Venables who had apparently initiated the idea of taking Bulger to the railway line. "On the other hand, you are looking at him and you are saying 'Well, I know why - because he is so weak'. Ones well likely never fully understand or appreciate. How can two children commit such a brutal act against an innocent young boy? Turns out that Jon Venables has been living 20 miles away from me in Warrington under the name Paul Jon Williams. Robert said 'If you tell anybody I'll get my big brother to batter you up'. But he also laid blame with their parents, calling for a public debate about "the home background, upbringing, family circumstances, parental behaviour and relationships" of children who commit "grave crimes". she said. [53][54] One scene in the film shows the malevolent doll Chucky being splashed with blue paint during a paintball game. [122], In November 2011, it was reported that officials had decided that Venables would stay in prison for the foreseeable future, as he would be likely to reveal his true identity if released. Trivia. Both men were charged with a public order offence, but this was later dropped. . [78][79], On 14 March 2008, an appeal to set up a Red Balloon Learner Centre in Merseyside in memory of James Bulger was launched by his mother and Esther Rantzen. Police had even trained him in counter-surveillance after he was told he would have to "live and hold a lie" for the rest of his life. Could the pair of them have sought out a younger boy in order to gain dominion over him? Both boys were said to have had difficult home lives and both had been playing truant from school on the day of the killing. He has had security with loving parents and a loving brother and sister.". He pleaded guilty to these charges. [10][23] In the aftermath of their arrest, and throughout the media accounts of their trial, the boys were referred to as "Child A" (Thompson) and "Child B" (Venables). [130] He was scheduled for another parole hearing in October 2022 but it was postponed for at least three months. Ann Thompson was portrayed as an incompetent alcoholic, while Susan Venables was painted as a loose woman whose neighbours "noted a procession of men friends for Mrs Venables". Left on her own, Thompson sought consolation in drink and was often to be found in the bar in Higson's Top House rather than looking after the children in her chaotic home. [89] The sentence was reduced to 2+12 years on appeal. The Ministry of Justice refused to reveal any details, but the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw did say the recall was prompted by "extremely serious allegations". The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. Little James was led away by . In the weeks and months and years that followed they have been attacked and vilified by the press. A Merseyside detective said, "We went through something like 200 titles rented by the Venables family. Blunkett added his own conditions to their licence and insisted on being sent daily updates on the boys' actions. It was alleged that he had downloaded 57 indecent images of children over a 12-month period to February 2010, and had allowed other people to access the files through a peer-to-peer network. Faced with the near-inconceivability of the crime itself, and two suspects below the age at which the law judges young people as morally capable, the media and the public needed surrogate criminals to bear the blame, to be the object of their sense of outrage and desire for retribution. [37] These aspects were later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 1999 that they had not received a fair trial by being tried in public in an adult court. "[67], In the months after the trial, and following the birth of their second son, the marriage of Bulger's parents, Ralph and Denise, broke down; they divorced in 1995. Jon Venables (left) and Robert Thomspon were found guilty of abducting and murdering James (Image: PA) Denise soon realised her son was gone, and an announcement was made over the tannoy. In 2005, when Venables was 23, his probation officer met another girlfriend of his, who was aged 17. He says 'I know, Mum'. News stories reported the demeanour of the defendants. The Venables household was also fraught but contrastingly so. But he also laid blame with their parents, calling for a public debate about "the home background, upbringing, family circumstances, parental behaviour and relationships" of children who commit "grave crimes". Then in 2007, he started drinking heavily and taking drugs, including cocaine and the recently-banned substance mephedrone. Jon's parents said they talked to their son about James after he was arrested, but had to stop. The play featured an 18-year-old character called Timmy, who was due to be released from a secure unit after luring a toddler away from his mother and beating him to death. he lived a very terrible childhood. It is as if she thinks of herself walking around with a sign above her head: Mother of Bulger Murderer. There were tales of charity collection boxes being stolen and of children being assaulted in the classroom. 2023 BBC. [140], In 2008, Swedish playwright Niklas Rdstrm used the interview transcripts from interrogations with the murderers and their families to recreate the story. [10] One of the boys later revealed that they were planning to abduct a child, lead him to the busy road alongside the shopping centre, and push him into the oncoming traffic. British children Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were just 10 when they tortured and killed two-year-old James Bulger in 1993. [9] Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen shoplifting various items, including sweets, batteries, a troll doll, and a can of blue Humbrol modelling paint. In April 2011, in the aftermath of his 2010 imprisonment, these allegations were outlined in a Sunday Times Magazine article written by David James Smith, who had been following the Bulger case since the 1993 trial, and again later in a BBC documentary titled Jon Venables: What Went Wrong? The suspicion was that it must have been their lack of care, love, or firm parental control that led to James Bulger's torture and death on a railway line. [80][81] A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in his hometown of Kirkby, the school he would have been expected to attend had he not been murdered. As a result, we've decided to take you behind the scenes of the Mbappe family. Write A Comment Popularly known as the murder of James Bulger on 12 February 1993 in England of Unknown. [111] He pleaded guilty to charges of downloading and distributing child pornography, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV. Most people can differentiate between fictional and real savagery, with some experts arguing that fantasy violence can actually relieve real-life urges. Venables had contacted his probation officer in February 2010, fearing that his new identity had been compromised at his place of work. In the picture, it is Venables who is holding James's hand. He was seen as one of the most successful murder of James ", Her husband, Neil, said: "If you had a league table of children, you would put him at the bottom of the list for anything like this.". One of the overriding motives behind any great act of violence or murder is the urge to be able to effectively exert power and control over your environment. [9][61] The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, reviewing the minimum sentence. [43], The boys, by then aged 11, were found guilty of Bulger's murder at the Preston court on 24 November 1993, becoming the youngest convicted murderers of the 20th century. Vizard replied, "If the issue is on the balance of probabilities, I think I can answer with certainty." In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years,[9] adding that Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution was a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles. Cases of children and teenagers who murder are shocking and terrible, but unfortunately they do happen. James was snatched from the Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside, on February 12, 1993, by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. He had been tortured - beaten with bricks and an iron bar. It was also revealed that Cheshire police had produced a "threat assessment" to try to establish what could happen to Venables were his new identity revealed. Research into the James Bulger Murders Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. . Mrs Venables described how she searched for Jon. "[121] The incident occurred after a man from Exeter posted photographs on a website devoted to identifying paedophiles, allegedly showing Venables as an adult, and revealing his name. [106] Chief Inspector Tracie O'Gara of Lancashire Constabulary stated: "An individual who was targeted four-and-a-half years ago was not Jon Venables, and now he has left the area. Tym's butcher's shop on the lower floor of the centre at around 15:40, Denise, who had let go of her son's hand to pay for her shopping, realised that her son was missing. Jon Venables In that September he was arrested for affray after a fight outside a night club - charges which were dropped after he claimed he was acting in self Suffice to say that the word evil is never far away from the names of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. [70] Denise married Stuart Fergus, with whom she had two sons. He pleaded guilty to these charges. In September 2020, he was denied parole. That being the case, the chances of both boys suffering from it is minimal. He's quite bright and clever. At What Age Should A Child be Held Accountable? Jon Venables was just 10 years old when he and friend Robert Thompson murdered toddler James Bulger. In the days after the arrest of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson for the murder of James Bulger, their mothers were attacked and vilified in the street. And thats a theory that doesnt stand up to very much scrutiny at all. The boys were taught to conceal their real names and the crime they had committed which resulted in their being in the units. [33] The family of one boy, who was detained for questioning but subsequently released, had to flee the city due to threats from vigilantes. But were these children, as so many have since hypothesised, born evil? The moment was caught on CCTV and became the defining image of a horrific case. 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